GAME Group administration shows high street flaw

We can report that the GAME Group has entered administration, which followed news only a few hours earlier about GAME leaving the London stock exchange. It is a sad day for all the workers that have been behind the gaming store for many years, and by no fault of their own might have to look for another job in a time when there are not many jobs around.

The company stated that they will “continue to trade” while working with an administrator, which gives them time to work things out with third parties and see if they can make ground with lenders. The GAME Group has been expected to reach administration for a number of weeks, and losing support from Activision, Microsoft, Capcom, Sega, EA, and others hasn’t helped matters.

The traditional high street has changed forever – people buy online more every year with a trend being high street stores seeing declines each year, and online retailers seeing increases year-on-year. Things have been harder all round with the recent global financial problems, but high street stores are still taking the biggest hit in a world that has changed a lot over the last few years.

OpCapita owns Comet and over the past week we’ve heard reports of stores closing, and rumors point to 61 electrical stores being marked for termination while they talk to landlords. If these rumors are true then this is more evidence of the retail giants finding it hard to complete with Internet offerings, which in most cases undercut prices. With money tighter than ever for the consumer it’s likely we’re all shopping around more, which in many cases means a better deal online or picking up games cheaper in supermarkets.

Will you miss GAME in the high street, and did you see the thousands of job losses coming to retail stores considering the change in shopping patterns over the last few years? For the consumer to buy more than clothing, food, and drink from high streets means a more unique selling point. Electrical stores would need to offer real helpful advice rather than employing people that don’t understand their product enough, which is seen in many electrical outlets and in a world where gamers know their video games – price is everything, which GAME has been out-priced for years.

Where do you buy most of your electrical products and video games – the high street, superstores or online? The feedback we’ve had so far from PR readers points to a lack of game stores on their high streets, and if GAME goes then it will be only online for them. There are also a lot of people that found this “inevitable” but also hope a buyer is found.